The Mersey Ferry Snowdrop is looking rather snazzy these days. It’s been dazzled to a design by pop artist Sir Peter Blake as part of the World War One Commemorations and will stay that way for two years.

Last week Gordon, Ellie and I took a trip on her across to Seacombe and from there walked along the prom to the seaside at New Brighton.

The promenade is a couple of miles long and completely traffic free with great views back towards Liverpool.

As you approach New Brighton the Mersey mud becomes lovely clean sand. The weather was gorgeous and the beach was full of families enjoying the sunshine. I was imagining my grandsons Seb and Josh having a fine time playing on this driftwood pirate ship!

From New Brighton we caught the bus back to Seacombe so we could continue our journey on the ferry. We’d paid for a River Explorer ticket and were determined to make the most of it. The £10 ticket also gives you entry into the U Boat Story Exhibition at Woodside (which would normally cost each adult £7.50). Seems like good value for money!

German U Boat U-534 is displayed in four sections with glass viewing partitions at either end of each section.

You can clearly see the damage caused by the depth charges that sent her to the bottom. Amazingly 49 of the 53 crew survived, 4 escaped through a torpedo hatch!

In the evening we headed to Chinatown for dinner. The Chinese Arch in Liverpool is apparently the biggest outside China!

We ended up eating at Ma Bo and were not disappointed by our choice. It’s certainly not the fanciest Chinese Restaurant I’ve eaten in but the food was delicious. The Chilli salt ribs we had as a starter were probably the tastiest any of us had ever eaten!